Want to get some products free after rebate at Ace Hardware? Money Saving Mom has the details.

Clive Thomspon wrote an article I want to print out and send to everyone I know. Seriously, it's that good. He writes:

As it turns out, this isn't a problem just for me — it's a problem for America. We've lost our Everyman ability to build, maintain, and repair the devices we rely on every day. And that's making it harder to solve the country's nastiest problems, like oil dependence, climate change, and global competitiveness.

The decay has been rapid. Only a few decades ago, most serious adults were expected to be fluent in basic mechanics. If your car or stove or radio broke down, you opened it up and fixed it. "Magazines like Popular Mechanics in the '40s and '50s would publish projects like an automated pig-feeding trough, and they assumed you had the tools and skills to make it," says Dale Dougherty, editor and publisher of Make magazine.

This is something I have been thinking about a lot lately- we are losing the cultural knowledge our dads and our moms just knew as matter of fact. Because we have grown up in households where both parents are working, or single parent households, or myriad other familial situations, we are losing the ability to do things for ourselves as we once had. It's one of the reasons I write Home Ec 101.

Recently my uncle came over and changed out a light fixture in my house. I realized he just knew how to do something I would have to look up on the internet. It's a matter of course for people who are my uncle's age, but people my age don't know how to do this sort of stuff. Now, the upside of this is that we do have the internet to look up how to do things, but without the writers on the internet who write these how to articles, we might be lost. That's why the DIY revolution is important. I teach you how to iron, you teach me how to hang a light fixture.

So, the cultural knowledge does continue, but in different form. Ch-ch-changes, for real.

Font design has been really popular this year, and now you can make a font out of your own handwriting. That is, if you like your own handwriting. Me, I'm not such a fan of how my writing looks, but I'd love to have something made out of my mom's handwriting, which is beautiful. And at $9, it's a bargain!

HT: Craftzine

Bill at Bill's TN Paradise writes:

Wynnewood is in Castalian Springs and is on the register of National Historic Landmarks. It was built in 1828 and is the largest log structure in Tennessee. It stretches 142 feet in length. It was a stage coach inn on the Nashville-Knoxville Road. It is owned by the state of Tennessee and operated as a museum.

I think the old log house did ok considering neighboring houses were flattened and 8 people were killed in Castalian Springs. It kept the inhabitants safe and wasn't flattened. I assume this old cabin is like mine with concrete chinking. Not as tight as the modern synthetic permachink, but probably more structurally stout. That is what may have saved some of those walls. Of course my log house is only 3500' sq ft - not nearly as large as Wynnewood.

The picture really tells the tale. It seems a log house is fairly safe in a tornado. Would I run right out and build a log house because of that? No, but it definitely adds to a log house's charm, doesn't it?

Danny Seo has a great before and after post about veneering an old table. Head over there for before and after pictures- and the best part, the in progress pictures. This really makes this process look totally do-able.

I just spent way too much time playing with the virtual room designer at Factory Direct Drapes. It's a fun toy, but it's also very useful for visualizing what their drapes will look like in your house.

A style of draperies I'm really digging right now is the grommet top drapes. It gives your drapes a sleek, modern look. When next I buy drapes, I'm definitely going for the grommet tops. How cool are they?

Be sure to check out Factory Direct Drapes and their awesome virtual room designer today!

This one is for all you woodworkers out there, a tutorial on making your own wooden bird toys. I'm really digging these, they are simple and beautiful. My 4 year old came up behind me and asked me to buy him some, so you know it's a hit with the kid set too.

HT: Craftzine

Cal Finder has a great post on their blog titled "7 Green Home Finds From Across The Web". It's a really interesting post with some stuff I'd never seen before. Here's a bit:

Now that you’ve had your gizmo fix, let’s move on to floors. Get with Green recently unveiled the first, fully eco-engineered flooring on the market, by Pioneer Millworks. What does a fully eco-engineered floor entail? The company uses FSC certified material, natural finishes, formaldehyde free, low VOC glue, and U.S. based manufacturing.

How awesome is that? My husband and I laid our laminate flooring last spring and I absolutely love it. Well, except for the fact that it's been almost a year since the flooring was laid and my husband still hasn't finished the part where the floor meets the flooring of the other rooms. Seriously, I should have used Calfinder and had one of their certified remodeling contractors to do the work. I wouldn't still be having this battle of wills with my husband about getting the flooring finished. Sure, doing it yourself might save money, but if the work never gets done, or it causes a long term fight in your marriage, is it really worth it?

Lessons learned, lessons learned.

Need last minute Valentine's Day ideas? Summer M at Creative Mom Cafe has got you covered. Thank goodness, I nearly forgot.

But be careful, glue guns are serious business. ( laughed too, Boogiemum! But ouch, be careful!)

Happy Valentine's day!

Photo source

Here's a novel idea: take a sheet of steel and make a chair from it. Not only is it an interesting modern design, but the way it is made is especially fascinating. For more pictures, head to Design Milk to see the process of how this chair was made.

HT: Craftzine

Want to make something for your loved one for Valentine's day? Or would you like to make some cool Valentine decor? Read on, Brutus.

Make a bouquet for your sweetie out of tampons. Weird, but some people might actually dig it.

Or how about making something to wear? Like a sexy corset?

Pick up some vintage Valentine's cards to brighten up your decor.

Give your lover your heart, or at least a knitted facsimile.

Make a pretty string of Valentine's hearts.

Have fun making it yourself, Shakhammerers!
[Photo: Tamponcrafts.com]

My parents spent an entire summer remodeling their kitchen when I was six and my brother was three. I remember it was really exciting to us, because they cut a hole in the wall and we would take turns looking through the hole in the wall. Good times.

But you have to be really careful when remodeling or doing a DIY project. My parents were standing around talking, when they suddenly heard a drilling sound. They turned around to see my brother drilling a hole in their brand new cabinets. Or, so they thought. It turned out to be his (very realistic sounding) play drill.

But that could have turned bad very quickly, if it hadn't been a play drill. Make sure you always keep your tools picked up where the kids can't get to them. Safety first!

Lara at Gliding Through Motherhood is renovating her bathroom:

I know you're thinking "WHAT??! That green countertop and floral motif in the shower are super retro chic and I would pay for someone to put that IN my bathroom" or not ;)

I totally thought that when I saw the post. Just kidding. The floral motif especially is pretty heinous. But you must click over and see the new bathtub! It looks great.

Yesterday afternoon and last night tornadoes ripped across the south and caused a lot of death and devastation. I live in that affected area.

Funny, Kathy T over at Shak and Jill lives about a mile from me, and her house was untouched. Me, I had some very minor storm damage, but more on that in a minute.

First, I wanted to say my family and I are all okay. I live a couple of miles south of the Metro Nashville/Davidson County border, and it was quite windy here and there was a little bit of lightning here, but we were on the south edge of the storm and most of the bad stuff missed us.

That said, I'm suffering with spotty internet today. I called the cable company and once they got over blaming my router (I lied and told them I didn't have a router. I did disconnect my router in case it was the problem, it's not) they said it might be storm related and said they were working on it. Okay, whatever.

But the problem is, I've tried to write posts a few times today and keep getting booted out of typepad. So I'm writing the bulk of this post in Word and then utilizing handy dandy copy and paste. So you'll all get the same post today. Sorry about filling your feed readers with that, but I wanted to hit every base.

In interesting news, my compost has just vanished. The compost bin is partly torn apart, but the compost, it's like it was never there. Seriously weird, man.

Photo: Chris Wage

What a cute transformation! Zamaida transformed this box she gets supplies in to a toy box for her son. I love it! Now I just have to find out how to get supplies in a cool wooden box so I can make my own. ;)

HT (and for more nifty make-it-yourself stuff): Make It From Scratch #50

Ikea has been bringing stylish, affordable furniture to homes all over the world for years and years, but now they're bringing stylish (? I dunno, I'm not terribly impressed with the exteriors and I've yet to see the interiors), affordable homes to the world. Well, to the UK and some places in Scandinavia. I expect the rest of the world will follow if this is successful.

I like that they are aiming this at people who have lower incomes who would normally not be able to afford a a home. I also like that you don't have to build it yourself, as anyone who has ever put together a wardrobe from Ikea can attest- Ikea products can be the devil to put together.

In theory, a rocking bed would be neat. In practice, I think it would be a bear to get any actual sleep done in that bed. Just looking at it gives me vertigo. The thought of my dog pouncing in the bed late at night makes me vomitous. But I dunno, some of you readers may dig this bed. What do you think? Love or hate?

HT: Freshome